Solar Panels - Argon Off the Grid

Bob Damiano

People would ask us: "Do you have a genset?" "Do you have a wind turbine?"  The answer to those questions were and still are "no".  But now we have a big "yes" to Solar. Argon is now sporting 337w of Solar generating capacity via three Solbian Flexible Panels.

On one of our more extended cruises last year, we had some trouble keeping our batteries happy while being unattached to shore power for a few weeks.  I was working about half time during the trip and my work laptop is quite a power pig (note to boss: Not complaining. I REALLY Like this laptop!).   It has a 130w power brick and I believe it is normally drawing around 85w. The other big draw of course is the fridge.  When it's running, it seems to use around 80w.  

Argon's Future Mission

Seeing that we have some bigger plans for cruising in the future, it was definitely time to consider some sort of renewable energy source.  We considered Wind and/or Solar and finally decided on a solar-only approach.

So, last year at the Newport Boat Show, we consulted with Cay Electronics about their solar offerings. We liked the idea of the new Flexible Solar Panels we see because we have quite a bit of available area on top of our dodger and bimini. We finally decided on three Solbian Flexible Panels:  one 137w panel on the dodger and two 100w panels on the bimini.  We also went with individual controllers for each panel so that we maximize the output from the panels even if one is shaded.  We went with Genasun GV-10 Controllers.

Canvas Work

All of Argon's canvas was done by Kinder Industries of Bristol, RI.   There was already a fair amount of canvas work planned for this year.  For one thing, we learned the hard (and expensive) way that we designed our original dodger to be too low. We thought it would look "sleek".  It turned out to just not "dodge" very well.  So a full re-do of the dodger was in the works anyway (which of course means a new connector piece).  We're also getting side panels made so that the entire cockpit can be enclosed.  This will be nice for those cold overnights.

Kinder had some experience with these flexible solar panels, so we had them do the modifications required for mounting the panels.  We worked closely with them to determine how best to mount and run wires to the panels.

new dodger on the sewing table at Kinder

bimini at kinder

Wiring

The wiring is simple from a circuity point of view. Panels connect to the controllers and controllers connect to the batteries.  Actually physically running the wires is not so straightforward.  For one thing, it has to get from outside to inside. This requires putting holes in your boat - conceptually a bad idea.

The entry point for the bimini wires was pretty simple.  There was a good spot to come through the cockpit combing.  For that entry point, I just drilled a hole and covered the entry point with a clamshell. 

For the dodger, it required finding a point that there would be decent access to on the inside.  For this entry point, I used a product called "dri-plug" which was recommended by Cay.  For some strange reason, these are only available from distributors in the UK.  Jolly good then.  The dodger wiring was the trickiest part.  It did give me an excuse to buy a dremel tool though as I needed to cut away some of the headliner above the trim.

measuring where to drill the hole

right there

messenger line is through

cut away some headliner above the trim

And there is the final dri-plug installation

At the other end

Ultimately these panel wires connect to the controllers.  I found a great place to mount the controllers in the battery compartment.  They are close to the batteries but the best part is that we can see the LED indicators on the controllers through the battery compartment vent.  The LEDs give a basic health and charging status indication and it's nice to be able to see them without opening anything up.  Between the controllers and the batteries are some inline fuses as suggested by Genasun.  The wiring is all 16GA stranded marine-grade wire.  It is theoretically UV resistant but we're trying to keep it as covered as possible thanks to some canvas sleeves Kinder made for us.

The controllers wired up and ready to mount

controllers mounted and wiring neat and tidy

Finished Panel Installation

In March, it all came together with Phil Kinder making a couple trips up from Bristol to do final fitting/installation of the new dodger and the modified bimini.

Does it work?

Yes
Chilly March means the heater is still on a lot.  During warmer days, when I can turn off the heat, I flip the shore power breakers off and go "off the grid".  I should probably grow a unibomber beard to get the full effect but it's still cool.  During the day, with the boom shadowing at least one of the panels, the system is keeping up with my work laptop as well as intermittent fridge cycling.  The batteries are staying nicely charged up.  Maybe one of these days, it will be warm enough to not need to fire up the heater in the late afternoon for the night.

Satellite System for Sailing: Fleet One Project

Bob Damiano

Cell phones don't work off-shore.  We're going off-shore.  So... this requires some sort of long-distance communication system to get data (such as weather reports, GRIBs, etc).  The two ways to go are with an SSB (Single-Sideband) radio or some sort of satellite system.  For various reasons, we decided to go satellite.  Maybe because I always wanted to be an astronaut. With satellites, you can either buy or rent a Sat Phone, or install a full-on sat receiver system.
After weighing options and considering what we want Argon's future mission to be, we decided on a KVH Fleet One satellite system.  We purchased this system (along with solar panels) from Cay Electronics.

 

The parts

The big bits are the satellite receiver and the terminal.  The trick is to connect these two things together somehow and mount them so that they work and don't look stupid. The cool thing about the Fleet One is that the antenna gets its power over the coax wire!  There are no power wires to run. Our total run is about 58 feet (40 from the nav station to the base of the radar mast and 18 to the top of the mast).  I like to leave nice big service loops at the disconnects to save my back when I have to work on it. The other major part was to add a dedicated wifi router to the terminal so that any computer (or phone) can connect. 

Initial Testing

We asked for the data plan to go live March 1st.  This way we would have time to debug any issues and get used to using it during the season.  It turned out that there was zero debugging to do. It just worked perfectly out of the box.

I set up the dome in the cockpit and connected it.  Even under the shrinkwrap and down low, it got a very strong tracking signal and I was able to download a GRIB to my android phone (over the wireless LAN).  I also sent texts (both directions) and made a very short phone call (both directions).

The data is very expensive:  $10/MB.  Our rule is that no phones or computers can do the "connect automatically" thing to this.  It will require typing in a password each time we connect to the Lan so there are no accidental big downloads.  This system will only be used off-shore to receive updates from shore support, texts from family/friends and weather info. We will also be able to send messages back to shore as well as our position for anyone interested in tracking us.

The test stand.  Notice it's under the shrinkwrap!

First GRIB download over the Fleet One

How to mount it?

Argon has a transom radar mast.  Last year when we added the Bullet Wifi Router, we purchased an antenna "wing" from Edson to mount that antenna on.  We purchased the Fleet One system at the Newport Boat Show in 2015 where Argon was featured in the Tartan Booth. There, Will Keene (CEO of Edson) actually came out to the boat and drew in a notepad the basic design for a mounting system for the KVH antenna.

A couple days after the show, we had this CAD mockup in our inbox from Edson:

Edson's mockup for the KVH antenna hoop

We liked the looks of this design and Edson went to work building one for us (it is now a regular item in their catalog).  When it arrived, we realized that we still needed to purchase a standard base for the KVH antenna. Here is a shot of the top of the hoop with that base installed.

The Standard Edson Base for the KVH mounted on the hoop

Strength Concerns

The Edson Wing is designed to have whatever antennae mounted by drilling/tapping into a plate of aluminum. I think this is fine for our bullet router or a small GPS antenna or something like that.  But this thing is pretty big (and expensive) and I just didn't like the thought of a few tapped holes in aluminum being the support.

I wanted to Thru-bolt that sucker somehow. Problem is, the top and bottom plates of the wing are not parallel.  This is the problem with wing-shaped things. So, I ordered a couple squares of King Starboard from Boat Outfitters who will very quickly cut any custom sized piece of starboard you need.  My plan was to drill some 1/4" clearance holes at a slant, and then use a wood boring bit to drill a flattened out countersunk area for a screw head.

The Starboard Squares drilled and countersunk

Here are some photos of the antenna hoop thru-bolted with the starboard squares.  This thing is really strong!

Underside of the wing with the 1/4-20 bolts going up through the wing.

The hoop thru-bolted to the wing and very strong

Wiring

The wiring is fairly straightforward. The RG223 Coax is connected with TNC connectors. I have crimpers that work more or less pretty good for TNCs.  It took a bit of trial/error (and a reorder of TNCs from I-Com, but I got it.

 

getting ready to crimp some RG-58

While we're at it... AIS GPS Antenna.

Last year when we installed AIS, we took a bit of a shortcut and installed the GPS antenna right inside the nav station inside the boat.  My feeling was that if my crappy little android phone could always get a great GPS signal inside the boat, this thing should too.  And it did - it worked fine.  But since we were taking the mast down anyway and since there would now be a spare place to stick another antenna, Linda convinced me to move the AIS GPS antenna up there.  So another 40' length of RG-58 and a few more TNC connectors is really all it took.

And another while we're at it...

There is a cockpit light at the top of the radar mast.  It was a big honkin current sucking halogen light.  Since I've been on a quest to rid Argon of every non-LED bulb there is, and since the mast was down anyway, we replaced it with a new 4w LED fixture.

The Fleet One base unit and the Linksys router that will be the Lan for it.

A small wiring project

The included IP phone

Ready to put it all together

The night before, here is everything wired up and mounted including the bullet, and the AIS GPS antenna

Getting ready to attach wing to mast

Putting the wing on the mast and re-mounting the radar dome

Notice the sexy new cockpit light

Up she goes

A crew of always-helpful marina neighbors came by for the lifting procedure. We really try to do this without dropping the mast overboard. 

Success

Final Installation and testing

The best part about these projects is when they are done and not only does the new thing work, but you haven't broken anything that already worked. Radar, Wifi, GPS, and of course Satellite are all working perfectly.  And I don't think it looks very stupid at all.